


a faded orange moon

by wafflelate



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen
Genre: Case Fic, Drabble Sequence, Gen, Happy Ending, Mild Treason, No Uchiha Massacre
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-11-27 10:41:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20947007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wafflelate/pseuds/wafflelate
Summary: Shisui investigates a murder while trying not to get murdered for snooping.





	a faded orange moon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [floweringbloom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/floweringbloom/gifts).

> I was so excited to have you as a recip! Sorry this is like half an hour late.

"You are not an officer of the Konoha Military Police, so I cannot let you see our case files," Fugaku-sama tells Shisui, placing a folder stuffed full of paper onto the desk between them. "You are not an officer of the Konoha Military Police, so I cannot assign you any cases." 

Fugaku-sama stands. "Even if you _were_ a KMP officer, I still could not assign you _this_ case, as it's classified beyond even my own security clearance level." Fugaku-sama turns his back to the room, fiddling with the tea service. 

So Shisui takes the file and opens it, of course. 

* * *

The Sharingan can memorize a lot of information quickly. Shisui goes over the contents of the file later, in private. 

Nara Shikako, 7 years old, high grades at the Academy, one of Sasuke's classmates. 

Jōnin Commander's daughter. 

Dead. 

There's a photo, a face for Shisui to memorize along with the other details. She's wearing a soft green shirt with a grey Nara mon. Her hair is braided back from her face. 

Looking at the village's children always fills Shisui with a vicious, white-hot need to protect them, but it's too late for Shikako-chan. Revenge or justice will have to do. 

* * *

The file includes a list of names. None of them are familiar. None of them appear in any of the archives for citizens and ninja that Shisui has the clearance to subtly search. If they're ANBU who have had their identities erased, then the list is useless and Fugaku-sama wouldn't have given it to him. Therefore, Shisui goes in the other direction: civilian and Academy school records, which are dangled freely for attempted infiltrators. 

Records in both civilian schools and the Academy are kept in filing cabinets with standard security that Shisui has known how to get around for years. Shisui paws through attendance records. 

Every name is the name of a child, and every child suddenly stopped coming to class. Individually, it would be unremarkable. Seeing all these files together... every child has high physical marks and good academy scores. 

Several of the clan kids are marked as withdrawn from the academy or civilian schools for intensive home tutoring. Most of the civilian children have either no one to miss them or no one with the power to make missing them a problem. Other children were reported missing from the village or from nearby, and Shisui has to break into Konoha Military Police records to find details. 

_Probably swept away when the Naka spilled over its banks_, says one. 

_Seen playing on the railings of a bridge earlier that day_, says another. 

_Wandered into the woods_ is popular for the children of farmers living just outside the village. 

When Shisui searches for the children who _should_ still be in Konoha, he can't find any of them. Not even the clan kids, although it's harder to sneak around various clan grounds than it is to snoop around civilian homes. 

What do these missing children have to do with Nara Shikako? 

* * *

"I need to take a short detour," Shisui says at the end of his next mission. "Clan business." Sora-Ku is close; it's a good excuse. 

Hyūga Tokuma says, "We're ahead of schedule." 

Aburame Muta inclines his head. "We will wait here for you." 

Shisui heads off in the direction of Sora-ku for a long time, long enough to get out of the range of Tokuma's Byakugan, and then diverts to a small civilian settlement nearby. To a farm there. 

"No," says the woman who answers the door. "There are no children living here." 

"Ah," Shisui says, heart sinking. "My mistake." 

* * *

What Uchiha Shisui does not know is that Hyūga Tokuma has the best Byakugan of any living Hyūga. 

What Uchiha Shisui does not know is that the Uchiha Clan is already under surveillance. 

"Why would he look for a child here?" Tokuma mutters when Shisui has turned back and he and Muta are rushing to arrive back at the team's meeting place. 

"Don't tell anyone," Muta requests. 

Tokuma can see and hear his hive stirred to agitation by this, and he's trusted Muta more than any higher authority since their genin days. "Fine," he agrees. "It's none of our business." 

* * *

Shisui picks Sasuke-kun up from the Academy. Nara Yoshino is there, telling a Yamanaka that she's thinking of taking missions again. Shisui is careful not to look at her, or compare her face to her daughter's, or even think of approaching her. 

The investigation is technically treasonous and must stay secret, even from the Nara. 

Children eventually flood into the courtyard. Sasuke is obviously disappointed that Itachi is nowhere to be seen. "Does nii-san have good teammates this time?" Sasuke demands. 

Shisui's probably not lying when he says, "He does." 

"Good," Sasuke says. 

He's so cute. 

He's Nara Shikako's age. 

* * *

By the end of the week, Sasuke peppers him with questions about Itachi's mission instead of sulking. Shisui absently makes up silly answers. 

Behind Sasuke, a boy in a soft grey Nara shirt hugs a blond girl who must be Yamanaka-san's kid. "Be safe," the Nara boy commands firmly. 

"Okay, Shikamaru, I will," the girl promises. "I will." Her voice cracks. She's too young to have had any practice controlling her stronger emotions. 

Shisui leads Sasuke away before the girl can start crying in earnest. 

"I miss Shikako, too," Sasuke confesses quietly. 

Shisui squeezes their hands together tighter. "I know." 

* * *

Mikoto-sama stops by early one morning. "Will you take Sasuke to school?" she asks desperately. 

Shisui wants to go back to bed, but she looks so harried that he can't bring himself to say no. And Sasuke is particularly adorable when he's still yawning and blinking against the morning sun. Shisui ruffles his hair before letting him run into the Academy building, and laughs at the scowl Sasuke throws over his shoulder. 

"Uchiha-san," someone says when Sasuke is out of sight, before Shisui can shunshin away. 

It's Muta, seeing several Aburame children to school. 

"Just Shisui is fine." He likes Muta. 

"Shisui-san, then," Muta says. "I require more practice against skilled genjutsu users. Would you be interested in a spar?" 

Yūhi Kurenai is across the Academy courtyard helping to herd several students into the building. Shisui doesn't glance at her or wonder why Muta hasn't asked her — she's older than them, probably busier, and the Aburame have never forgiven her father for being a terrible jōnin sensei. 

"Sure." Shisui has _never_ turned down a request to spar. "When are you free? We'll have to book a field..." 

"Now," Muta cuts in, "if you're free. I have an Aburame field reserved." 

* * *

When they were in the academy together, Shisui had wanted to end up on a team with him and Hyūga Tokuma more than anything. Even as a jōnin, he requests them on the rare occasions he's given a choice of teammates. 

He doesn't know how either of them feel. Certainly neither has ever asked him to spar before, but Shisui doesn't let himself speculate why things might have changed. Maybe he was exactly the right level of friendly on their last mission. Maybe Muta recently got his ass kicked by a genjutsu specialist. Who cares? 

Maybe they can be friends. 

* * *

Shisui doesn't think anything of it when Aburame Shibi comes to watch his a Muta's spar. Not until a swarm of kikaichu too large to be Muta's swells suddenly from the edges of the training field. Several swarms, even, covering the sky as well until the training field is shadowed and dim. 

The Aburame have well and truly trapped him. Shisui drops the genjutsu on Muta, moves so that he can see the both of them without turning his head, and waits. He remains extremely aware that every single kikaichu behind him is another potential enemy. 

Shisui doesn't want to fight. 

"I needed to speak with you," Aburame Shibi says. "A discussion that requires privacy." 

Shisui flicks his eyes back to the dome of kikaichu. Each of them move in a predictably pattern, lit up by chakra. A security technique, not an attack. It's hard to make himself relax, but he has to. He forces a laugh, says, "I guess it _was_ too much to hope Muta was just feeling friendly," and doesn't dwell on how true that really is. "What do you need?" 

"Why," Shibi asks carefully and without accusation, "are you investigating children given over to the Foundation?" 

* * *

The Foundation is approved by the Hokage, and its operation and personnel are the sole purview of Shimura Danzō, which is a name Shisui only recognizes as a student of the Nidaime. His grandfather's teammate. Shimura Danzō has come to Shibi several times asking for an Aburame, and can no longer be denied. Shimura Danzō was seen talking to Nara Shikaku a few days before his daughter's death. 

Shisui's hands tremble with rage. "They have Nara Shikako, then." 

"I am unsure if her death was a coverup to take her without Shikaku's permission or if it was a punishment," Shibi says. "Shikaku has tripled security around Nara grounds, but seems uninterested in investigating her death." Shibi pauses. "Until recently, we thought the Uchiha had declined to investigate as well." 

"The Uchiha aren't investigating Nara Shikako's death," Shisui says immediately. Uzume-ba taught him the basics of this: deny, deny, deny. 

Shibi only waits, his expression inscrutable. 

"That would be treason," Shisui adds. "So obviously we wouldn't. I'm not even a KMP officer. There was no money to even let me try it out. I've just recently gotten really interested in..." Shisui has to fish for the words he's looking for. "...census data." 

"Ah," Shibi says. "Census data. It can be inaccurate. Notoriously so, even." 

Shisui nods eagerly. "Everyone knows that." 

"Muta has a fascination with... statistics," Shibi offers. "You two should collaborate." 

An offer of help is more than Shisui was expecting. Even the information he's been given almost feels like too much. He can't help but glance at Muta and expect his old classmate to look put out at being ordered to help Shisui commit treason, but that's not what Shisui sees at all. 

Shisui's not very well practiced, but he'd swear Muta is just as angry as he is. 

* * *

Kikaichu can go places ninja can't, and even a tricky old bastard like Shimura Danzō isn't actually good enough to protect against bugs _all _the time, especially because he doesn't yet know the entire Aburame clan has it out for him. 

"There are tunnels," Muta reports eventually. "Deep and dark. A training facility under the village, with dormitories." 

The training facility has children. Muta's kikaichu report that much of the security seems to be secrecy-based, perhaps because seals might interfere with or be noticed by the Barrier Team. 

"Well," Shisui says. "I guess I should go take a look myself." 

* * *

He finds bodies first. Shisui memorizes their faces, even the ones he already recognizes. 

He finds training halls. Most of the kids are boys, all of them have clearly been trained to their absolute limits. 

He finds the only actually secure room in the complex — some kind of office for Danzō, according to what the kikaichu have picked up. 

He creeps through the place for hours and hours and when bed time comes, he sneaks into every room to memorize the faces of the sleeping, stolen children... and he finds Nara Shikako. 

Alive. Wide awake. Looking right at him. 

She's a smart kid. She's clutching a kunai. There are other children in the room, but those children are asleep. He can't let her raise an alarm. 

Shisui shows himself, and edges forward closely until he's close enough to crouch and whisper. "Hi, Shikako-chan," he says. 

"That's not my name anymore." A test. 

"Your mom would probably disagree," Shisui says. He opens his arms up to Shikako. "Do you want to get out of here, go see her?" 

"It's not safe," Shikako whispers. "He'll hurt them. He'll hurt _you_." She clutches her kunai tighter.. It's been months — what have then already done to her? What have they already made her do to other people? She must be almost eight now. 

"I'll make it safe," Shisui promises. He'll make Danzō _pay_. 

"He'll want your eyes," Shikako says. She takes a shuddering breath like she's about to break apart. 

"Don't worry about me," he tells her. "It's my job to protect you, not the other way around. So just let me take care of it. Okay?" 

"Okay," Shikako says. "Okay, but no dying. Promise me." 

Shisui promises, and gathers Nara Shikako up in his arms, and gets them the hell out of there. 


End file.
